The concept of the public sphere has been defined in various forms and has remained a subject of continuous debate from Ancient Greece to the modern era. Contemporary discussions still revolve around questions such as to whom this concept belongs, where it begins and ends, and how its boundaries with the private sphere are to be determined. The origins of these debates can be traced back to the distinct separation between the public and private realms in the city-states of Ancient Greece. In the modern context, the blurring of boundaries between the public and private spheres has given rise to issues such as alienation, loneliness, and reification (Verdinglichung) in individuals. The distinction between “public” and “private” finds its roots in the structure of the Greek polis. Free citizens divided their lives between these two spheres. While they gathered in public spaces such as the agora – marketplaces where civic issues were discussed – as well as in courts, battlefields, and sites of communal activity, they returned to their private lives, confined to the household, when they withdrew from these areas. This division was grounded in the principle that the head of the household would not carry private matters into the public sphere, with privacy and domesticity strictly confined to the household. Emotions such as modesty, shame, and reserve were considered intrinsic to the private sphere, whereas, in entering the public sphere, the individual would shed these qualities and seek recognition, competition.

This article examines and tests the analytical potential of dynamic forms, considered through the distinction between forma formata and forma formans in the work of Ernst Cassirer. This conceptual pair is applied to the problem of ongoing transformations in the Maritsa Iztok (Maritsa East) coal-mining region in Bulgaria (2024 – 2026). The analysis focuses on the tension between the “carbon past” as a stagnant form (forma formata) and the innovative impulse as a will to form (forma formans) in the course of these transformations. Examples are identified both of the functioning of forma formata in established practices and of breakthroughs of forma formans (the will to form) through civic initiatives (such as air-quality monitoring) and through the introduction of visionary educational strategies (including AI technologies).

The right to life is a basic human right and the foundation for the protection of all other rights and freedoms. In this context, euthanasia opens up complex legal, ethical, philosophical and psychological dilemmas, especially in the relationship between the patient’s autonomy and the state’s obligation to protect life. Although the subject of the paper is primarily euthanasia, the analysis also includes assisted suicide to the extent that it is necessary for comparative legal and normative consideration of this issue. The paper examines the question of whether the right to life can be derived from the so-called the right to die. It starts from the position that the right to life cannot be transformed into the right to die, but that the patient’s autonomy can only be recognized within strictly limited legal frameworks. The analysis includes international standards for the protection of human rights, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and comparative legal solutions in the field of euthanasia and assisted suicide. A special contribution of the paper is reflected in the consideration of psychological factors that can affect the ability to make an autonomous decision, including the ability to reason, hopelessness and fluctuation of will.

The intersection of assumptive worlds and artificial intelligence (AI) presents a dynamic landscape where human cognition and digital technologies converge. The assumptive worlds, as defined in psychological theories, reflect the stable set of beliefs and mental schemas which allow individuals to organize their experiences according to relatively-enduring expectations about the reality. Conversely, AI technologies increasingly influence and alter these belief systems by generating information and perspectives that users may uncritically adopt, thus reshaping their assumptive worlds. Thus, it is worthy to examine how AI can simultaneously pose challenges and offer opportunities for reshaping assumptive worlds while adhering to ethical standards (Firnando & Wahyudi, 2024; Borgwardt et al., 2019).

This article proposes the figure of the digital centaur – a contemporary transposition of the ancient hybrid form – as a conceptual and metaphoric instrument for thinking the human condition under the impact and pressures of artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and emerging forms of synthetic sociality (humans and AI agents). The transhumanist horizon imagines a functional fusion: the human teaches the machine what is embodied life (sentience, experience, meaning), while the machine cognitively extends the human brain and intelligence. Yet the promise of augmentation conceals a philosophical problem of measure and normality whether the human nervous system, moral agency, and epistemic formation can remain coherent when information is “poured” directly into the brain, when attention is governed by algorithmic environments and curation, and when new intelligent agents increasingly occupy almost all social public and private fields. The analysis integrates classical limits of cognitive capacity, the two-systems model of thinking (fast and slow by Kahneman and Tversky), the extended mind thesis, and contemporary neuroethical frameworks, and concludes with a thesis: the future of the human will not be decided by capability alone, but by the normative architecture through which the notion of hybrid (human and AI merging in any kind of forms) is constituted.

The aim of the article is to show the role of digital skills of people of different ages as a consequence of the processes of digitalization in Bulgarian society. Different dimensions of digitalization, attitudes towards online learning and levels of positive attitudes towards it are analysed. Trust in Internet content is monitored, as well as cases of cyberbullying as consequences of digitalization and the presence of digital skills. The methodology is based on an online survey conducted by the authors of the article among the Bulgarian population in 2023. Different opinions and assessments are shown regarding digital skills, mobile learning. The determinants of trust in Internet content and the effect of experienced episodes of cyberbullying on Internet use are presented. The main conclusion of the article is that in Bulgarian society there is a relatively good availability of digital skills, which are important for modern processes.

The text is a review of the activity of the Institute for Bulgarian Philosophical Culture (IBPC) up to now and its publication - the “The Bulgarian Philosophical Review”, prepared on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Institute. It dwells on the statute and mission of IBPC. The main characteristics of our website have been presented as well as the publications of the academic institution and its journal. The results of “The Philosophical 20th Century in Bulgaria” research project have been reported in brief. The forums and events held with the participation of IBPC as well as other initiatives have been described. The sources of funding of the IBPC and its publication and the main problems they face have been pointed out.